New Orleans inspector general's comp time payroll practices under Civil Service scrutiny

The New Orleans Civil Service Department is at odds with the city's inspector general, suggesting that the watchdog agency has for four years been granting comp time to its salaried employees, though such payment practices could violate city law. The department sent the office a letter ordering it to cease the practice immediately and pen a plan "for correcting...

The New Orleans Civil Service Department is at odds with the city's inspector general, suggesting that the watchdog agency has for four years been granting comp time to its salaried employees, though such payment practices could violate city law.

New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux

The department sent the office a letter ordering it to cease the practice immediately and pen a plan "for correcting past errors." Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux agreed to temporarily suspend the practice, but fired off a letter to the commission saying he was "disturbed" by their request.

"So although the policy has been suspended, we will not be submitting a plan to 'correct past payroll errors' as we do not believe that there are past payroll errors to correct," he wrote.

The two disagree on a legal point: whether Quatrevaux's office is entitled to award compensatory time to salaried employees who work overtime, though the practice is not recognized by the city's payroll department.

The issue was introduced Monday morning to the city's Civil Service Commission.

Since the inspector general's internal policy was established in 2008, the department has tracked the time that the IG's salaried employees -- who are not eligible for overtime pay -- have worked beyond the regular 35-hour week. Then those employees can take an equivalent time off at a later point.

"We're not paying anyone anything extra," Quatrevaux said Monday afternoon. "If someone worked two days on a weekend, they can take two days off sometime in the not-too-distant future. That's all."

The conflict arose in April, when a deputy police monitor went on her honeymoon. She was out of paid time off and her timesheet defaulted to the city's pay code No. 82: leave without pay.

The city, which processes the Inspector General's timesheets as it would any other city agency, says the city does not recognize comp time in its payroll process, nor does it award such benefits to other city employees.

Lisa Hudson, director of personnel, wrote a letter, dated Oct. 22, that described comp time as essentially a substitute for overtime pay -- making it part of an employee's pay and thus subject to civil service law. Under that interpretation, the inspector general's policy for comp time would need the City Council's approval, which it does not have, Hudson wrote.

But the Inspector General's Office wrote back four days later, saying the law gives it authority to set its own practices. Quatrevaux also wrote that the comp time practice is more akin to a leave policy, rather than a pay policy, so not subject to council or Civil Service Commission approval.

Hudson, in her letter, also noted that the regular working hours pay code is meant to reflect the actual hours worked in any given pay period, not a potential combination of working hours and comp hours.

But Quatrevaux responded that the employees have marked that on timesheets simply because the city offers no code to suggest comp time over working time.

He said Monday that it's an issue he hope to resolve quickly, then return to the old practice -- which he describes as a good way of rewarding workers for putting in long, often irregular hours.

The Civil Service Commission will meanwhile review the documents he provided -- including the internal comp time balance sheets and policies in place -- to determine whether the practice has violated the law.